All Day Breakfast Burrito

You know that saying “necessity is the mother of all invention”? Well, random stuff in the fridge is the mother of all recipes. Or at least is was for this recipe. Throwing stuff together to see what works and what doesn’t is a really fun part of cooking. And by damn is this one of the things that works!

I’ve called this a breakfast burrito because that’s when I first ate it. And also it’s got an egg in it. Which I’m fairly sure is, like, Latin for breakfast, or something. But it’s an All Day Breakfast because you don’t have to wait for the man to tell you when you can and can’t eat something deliciously awesome.

This recipe is pretty much as quick as you want it to be. You can make the tortillas and the hummus completely from scratch, or you can just use pre-made stuff from the shops if you wanna save a bit of time. Hummus is crazy easy to make though, so I’m gonna include the instructions for that. Best part is, you can adjust it to how you like it. Want more lemon? Less garlic? You the boss.

Then it’s time for breakfast á la Boss!

1) Throw canned chickpeas in a blender with crushed garlic, lemon juice, cumin, olive oil, and a little cayenne and sesame oil. Boom. Done.

2) Slice a big ol’ onion and fry until soft. Add sliced smoked sausage, sliced olives and keep frying.

3) Heat up some water in a pot, and start poaching a few eggs.

4) Cut cherry tomatoes into little wedges and add to the onions. Warm up a couple of tortillas.

5) Spread chickpea mush on a tortilla, spoon the onion mix over it and top with a poached egg.

How quick was that, eh?! And that’s including making your very own hummus. Hot dang!

I call bullshit. Hummus needs tahini to be authentic.

You know something, Dr. Jones? You’re absolutely right. But tahini is the one ingredient most of us are least likely to have easy access to, and I reckon that’s what makes hummus sound more daunting to make than it is. I mean, look at it! Throw a bunch of stuff in a blender and twenty seconds later it’s done!

Besides, a lot of people actually aren’t too keen on the particular bite that sesame paste is responsible for. If you like it, by all means add it in! I find that a touch of sesame oil does the job though, striking a great balance.

Detailed measurements and walkthrough below.

Ingredients (makes 4) - €9

For the Hummus:

• a tin of chickpeas (about 250g when drained)
• 3-6 cloves of garlic (depending on how much you like garlic)
• a lemon
• 2 tsp cumin
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

For the Filling:

• a little oil for frying
• 1 large onion (or 2 medium ones)
• 100g smoked sausage (like cabanossi or pepperoni)
• A handful of pitted green olives
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• 4 free range eggs (the fresher the better)
• 4 tortillas (to make your own super easy, super delicious tortillas, check out this recipe)

To make the hummus, you will need a food processor or blender of some sort. I just used a hand blender. Otherwise, you’d need some kind of giant pestle and mortar, and some serious determination. I’d recommend the blender option though.

Once you get the hang of making hummus, you can knock it out while you’re frying everything else. But for now we’ll just make it first to get it done and dusted.

    Crack open the tin of chickpeas, drain them and give them a rinse. Peel as much garlic as you like, and crush it. Bear in mind that raw garlic has a far stronger taste than the cooked stuff, so factor that into your considerations. Also, if you go overboard with the garlic… you might want to quarantine yourself for the rest of the day. For the good of humanity. Lastly, roll your lemon firmly between your hands to make it easier to squeeze, then cut it in half. That’s all the prep work that needs to be done for hummus.

    Canned chickpeas are already cooked (you can’t substitute with dried chickpeas), so all we need to do is purée them. Stick em in a blender along with the crushed garlic, the spices and the oils. Squeeze in the juice from half the lemon, then whizz the lot until it’s completely blended. Have a taste and see if it needs more lemon (personally, I use the whole thing), or anything else. If not, you’re golden. Hummus complete!

    Next up is the onion mix. Slice the onion thinly and throw it into a medium-hot pan with a little oil. Move the onion around to stop it from burning or sticking, and just let it slowly soften, soften, soften, until it’s less than half of its previous size and lost all trace of rigidity. Hands up who’s had that problem, amiright? Onion gets amazing and sweet when it’s like this, which is exactly what we want.

    Slice up your smoked sausage and add that to the pan. Then slice your olives and throw them in too. I want to be clear here that I don’t mean smokey flavoured raw sausages, I mean smoked sausage, like smoked salmon. It should be totally fine to eat as it is, just like a frankfurter. Leave everything to fry for a few minutes and get all awesome together.

    In the meantime, grab a wide pot and get some water into it. We’ll need this for poaching our eggs, so make sure it’s deep enough for that. Whack a lid on it and start bringing the water to a boil. As that’s happening, rinse your cherry tomatoes and cut them up into horribly cute little wedges. Frankly, they’re so adorable, they disgust me. So throw them into the frying pan out of spite.

    Once your water is bubbling, drop the heat so that it’s just below boiling. Boiling water will basically beat the crap out of your eggs, and we don’t want that, now do we? For best results, use the freshest eggs you’ve got, and one at a time, crack an egg into a small cup and lower that into the hot water before sliding the egg out. This way they’ll stay together. Unlike 1D. Why Zayn? Why!?

   Poached eggs only take about 3 minutes to cook, so this is when everything comes together like the A-Team’s plans. Warm up your tortillas, and throw them onto plates. For each one, schmear on a big dollop of hummus, then scoop on a spoonful of the onion mix, before finally fishing out a poached egg and sliding it on top. For extra fancy-schmancy points, slice open the yolk and let it dribble out over everything.

Wrap that baby up like it’s bedtime and tuck in!

(You’ll probably end up with loadsa left over hummus, but that is never, ever a bad thing. It’s a rockin’ dip and goes great in most sandwiches. I only used these quantities because I don’t want to use just half a can of chickpeas, you know?)